Learn how to make this Japanese family favourite, Spaghetti Napolitan! Made with sausage, bell peppers, onion and mushrooms cooked in a sweet ketchup sauce and mixed with perfectly cooked, el dente pasta.
What is Spaghetti Napolitan?
Spaghetti Napolitan (スパゲッティナポリタン) is a classic Japanese style "wafu pasta" dish. It's easy to make and you can use accessible ingredients such as sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms and onions served in a simple ketchup sauce.
It's easily one of the most popular pasta dishes in Japan, often being served at home, in cafes and at "yoshoku" restaurants for instance. You can even buy a premade sauce at the supermarket!
Like spicy foods? It's also popular to add a few drops of Tabasco sauce to kick it up a notch!
Yoshoku (洋食) is a type of Japanese dish with Western influence and flavour. In fact, many yoshoku recipes contain ketchup. Other examples of yoshoku dishes include:
- Hayashi Rice (Hashed beef stew with rice)
- Curry Rice (Gravy-like curry with rice)
- Hamburg steak (Thick meat patty often served with a demi-glace sauce)
- Omurice (Ketchup rice wrapped in a fluffy omelette)
I'd say that Spaghetti Napolitan is pretty much a pasta version of omurice, so if you like omurice, I'm sure you'll love this dish!
A brief history of Spaghetti Napolitan
While the name "Spaghetti Napolitan" might sound like an Italian dish, actually, this ketchup infused pasta dish is a Japanese creation! I mean, Italians would never use ketchup on their pasta would they?
It is said that Spaghetti Napolitan started in Yokohama. It was created by a chef named Shigetada Irie, who was working at the Hotel New Grand. He was inspired by a tomato sauce flavoured spaghetti dish that was served to the American Military. However, because tomato sauce was hard to come by at the time, he replaced it with ketchup and Spaghetti Napolitan was born!
The dish was named after the Italian city of Napoli, known as Naples in English. In Japanese, you write Napoli as "ナポリ" or "Napori", which is why you often see the name written as "Spaghetti Naporitan".
Wafu Pasta
Japan is a nation of pasta lovers and we have a whole array of dishes that combine Italian Pasta with local Japanese ingredients. We call these dishes "Wafu Pasta" (和風パスタ) which translates to "Japanese style pasta". Check out some of my tasty wafu pasta dishes!
- Spaghetti Meat Sauce
- Mentaiko Pasta (Cod Roe Spaghetti)
- Butter Shoyu Mushroom and Bacon Pasta
Spaghetti Napolitan (Japanese Ketchup Spaghetti)
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 portions 1x
Description
How to make tasty family favourite, Spaghetti Napolitan with sausage, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and ketchup sauce.
Ingredients
- 3 litres Water
- 1 tablespoon Salt
- 200g Spaghetti (1.7-1.8ml)
- 2-3 Skinny hotdog sausages (the boiled kind)
- ½ White onion
- ½ Green bell pepper
- 3 Brown button mushrooms
- 2 teaspoon Olive oil
- 4 tablespoon + 2 tablespoon Ketchup
- ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon Unsalted butter
- 2 Eggs
- 2 pinches Salt and pepper
- ½ teaspoon Grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 pinches Dry parsley
Instructions
- First, take a large pot and add 3 litres of water and 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil.
- While waiting for the water to heat up, cut the sausages diagonally into 1cm slices. (Approx ½ inch)
- Cut the onion, bell pepper and mushrooms into slices.
- Heat up a large pan on medium, once hot add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add the sausage slices and fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the onion and fry for 2 minutes.
- Add the bell pepper and mushroom, fry for another 1-2 minutes.
- Next, add 4 tablespoon of ketchup, ½ tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter.
- Mix well and allow the sauce to heat through.
- Take the pan off the heat and set aside.
- Add the spaghetti to the pot of boiling water and cook according to the instructions on the packaging.
- Heat up a separate pan on medium and add a drizzle of oil. Crack in 2 eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper and fry to preference.
- Take 1-2 tablespoon of the pasta water and pour it into the pan with the ketchup sauce.
- Drain the rest of the water and add the pasta to the pan of sauce, return the pan to the heat.
- Mix well and warm through.
- Add ½ teaspoon of grated parmesan, a pinch of salt and pepper and 2 more tablespoon of ketchup. Mix well.
- Serve up and top with fried egg and a sprinkle of parsley.
- Enjoy!
Notes
You could also make this dish with bacon, ham and your preferred vegetables.
You can spice it up with some Tabasco sauce!
- Category: Fusion
- Method: Boiling/frying
- Cuisine: Japanese
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